Description
The Capitoline Hill is the smallest of Rome's hills, but it has always been its center: in antiquity the sacred hill of the Temple of Jupiter, since the Middle Ages the seat of the city government. At the top is the square designed by Michelangelo, with the view over the Roman Forum behind it.
You climb up by the Cordonata, the broad, gently sloping staircase designed by Michelangelo, with two basalt lions at the bottom that spout water. At the top stand the great statues of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, which came from an ancient temple of theirs.
The Piazza del Campidoglio is closed on three sides by palaces harmonized by Michelangelo: in the middle the Palazzo Senatorio, seat of Rome's city hall, with its double staircase and the reclining statues of the Nile and the Tiber. The pavement was laid only in 1940, following Michelangelo's design taken from an old engraving.
In the center of the square stands the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, a copy: the bronze original, which still has traces of gilding, is in the Capitoline Museums. Opened in 1734 in the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Nuovo, they are considered the oldest public museum in the world.
If you go around behind the Palazzo Senatorio, you come to a terrace over the Roman Forum: you can see the Via Sacra, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the temples, the Basilica of Maxentius and, at the far end, the Arch of Titus and the Colosseum.
Michelangelo turned the square around: it used to face the Forum, and he pointed it toward St. Peter's, the city's new center. The job was given to him by Paul III, who had been ashamed of the hill during Charles V's visit in 1536: goats grazed among the ruins, and people called it the “goat hill.”
The work was so slow that Michelangelo, who died in 1564, saw only the staircase of the Palazzo Senatorio finished. Others completed the rest, following his design.
The hill also has its most famous legend: in 390 BC, during the Gauls' night assault, the geese sacred to Juno cackled and woke the defenders. The temple of Juno Moneta, which commemorates the episode, housed the first mint: that is where the word “money” comes from.
You climb up by the Cordonata, the broad, gently sloping staircase designed by Michelangelo, with two basalt lions at the bottom that spout water. At the top stand the great statues of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, which came from an ancient temple of theirs.
The Piazza del Campidoglio is closed on three sides by palaces harmonized by Michelangelo: in the middle the Palazzo Senatorio, seat of Rome's city hall, with its double staircase and the reclining statues of the Nile and the Tiber. The pavement was laid only in 1940, following Michelangelo's design taken from an old engraving.
In the center of the square stands the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, a copy: the bronze original, which still has traces of gilding, is in the Capitoline Museums. Opened in 1734 in the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Nuovo, they are considered the oldest public museum in the world.
If you go around behind the Palazzo Senatorio, you come to a terrace over the Roman Forum: you can see the Via Sacra, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the temples, the Basilica of Maxentius and, at the far end, the Arch of Titus and the Colosseum.
Michelangelo turned the square around: it used to face the Forum, and he pointed it toward St. Peter's, the city's new center. The job was given to him by Paul III, who had been ashamed of the hill during Charles V's visit in 1536: goats grazed among the ruins, and people called it the “goat hill.”
The work was so slow that Michelangelo, who died in 1564, saw only the staircase of the Palazzo Senatorio finished. Others completed the rest, following his design.
The hill also has its most famous legend: in 390 BC, during the Gauls' night assault, the geese sacred to Juno cackled and woke the defenders. The temple of Juno Moneta, which commemorates the episode, housed the first mint: that is where the word “money” comes from.